Hosted by…

My name is Stuart Hillston.

I am a Mindfulness Teacher, Certified Hypnotherapist and trainee Psychotherapist.

I started my working life in software – as a developer, then entrepreneur, and after 20 years, 2 exits, a spell in a NASDAQ company and living in the USA and Japan I moved in to professional investing (family office, AIM investment vehicle, fund in London) and then to be a professional fund raiser, adviser, mentor and coach focusing on entrepreneurs and start-ups.

My own entrepreneurial journey, and that of the 500+ entrepreneurs I have mentored and coached, had one consistent gap – no-one prepared me mentally for the challenge ahead, I thought no-one was there when the psychological toll felt too high, and I carry some of the scars to this day.

I am developing “mental health by stealth” modules for accelerators, incubators and Universities as part of a new business (Cobalt Mental Health) of which I am co-Founder with Petra Velzeboer. These modules serve three purposes – to train and prepare their cohort for the road ahead; to train their staff to be open and not close people down when they need help the most; and to train their voluntary advisors (the mentors mostly) how to develop counselling skills so they can spot when someone may need extra support and how to provide that.

Now I’ve started this podcast called You Are Not Alone where I talk to entrepreneurs, business people, solo workers, artists and those not working about their journey and the impact on their mental health – good or bad.